Cichlid fishes are a very diverse and species-rich family of teleost fishes that inhabit lakes
and rivers of India, Africa, and South and Central America. Research has largely focused on …

Identifying the evolutionary and developmental bases of adaptive phenotypes is of central
interest in evolutionary biology. Cichlid fishes have been a useful research model due to …

How genetic variation is maintained in ecologically important traits is a central question in
evolutionary biology. Male Trinidadian guppies, Poecilia reticulata, exhibit high genetic …

Cichlid fishes in the African Great Lakes have undergone explosive speciation, acquiring
markedly varying ecologies and diets. There are multiple lineages of scale-eating cichlids …

The selected effects theory is supposed to provide a fully naturalistic basis for statements
about what biological traits or processes are for without appeal to final causes or intelligent …

Feeding upon the scales of other fish—lepidophagy—is a highly specialized foraging
strategy in fish. Scale-eating is rare in teleosts, yet has evolved several times in East African …

Abstract Among the ancient Great Lakes of East Africa, Lake Tanganyika is the oldest and
possesses about 250 species of cichlid fishes. Most are endemic species and have rapidly …

Many cichlid species in the shallow-shore of Lake Tanganyika suffer damage from attacks
by the scale-eater Perissodus microlepis. Many prey fish engage in warning behaviors to …

Food resource specialization within novel environments is considered a common axis of
diversification in adaptive radiations. Feeding specializations are often coupled with striking …

How genetic variation is maintained in the face of strong natural selection is an important
problem in evolutionary biology. Selection should erode genetic diversity, leading to more …